Episode 13 - From Playing Major League Baseball to Working with Art Basel

bit about yourself. Hey, everyone, Severino Alvarez here a k A Sevy or Severino truly. These guys end up calling me a lot of different names, So whatever one sticks, it just depends on what day of the week it is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well today we're gonna stick to uh Sevy just to make things a little bit easier. Okay, cool, I'm I'm with that. So. Um, I met Sevrino through a good friend of mine, uh Drek Croatian style. I've had him on the show before, and uh we've been good friends

ever since we met. Had our ups and downs, but it has a few times that's really normal one. Okay, So Sevy, tell us a little bit about what you do. How maybe you got acquainted with Dray. What's your part of the fashion sneaker world. Yeah, so Dre and I met at Basel in Miami through uh a big sneaker critic and sneaker collector and sneaker connoisseur a k A. Trinidad James t J as we know him. Um, he introduced us back and I believe it was um maybe

and yeah, he introduced me to Dre. Um. We had a very unique introduction and became friends in the next year. I would say after that. UM, anyways, time me Dre, what I do typically depends on who's asking, or again I like to say, like it depends on what day of the week. It is a lot of entrepreneurial stuff that is involved, um with basically conceptual ideas that involve brand development. UM. I do a lot of consulting. Uh. There's a kid that is seventeen years old that I

live coach right now. That's kind of what I have seen at what best benefit him and his creative ventures. UM. I wouldn't say there's a ton of brands that I work with there's a few brands that I work with. There has been brands in the past that I don't work with anymore clothing wise and fashion that I don't work with any more that I did. But consulting advisement, brand development, it's a it's kind of a very intriguing

and unique industry that we work in. You know, sometimes you work on like a specific project for one brand for a month and then you're done, And other times you are working with a brand for several years and it becomes kind of like a home to you. Uh yeah, So give give us an example of, you know, one of the cooler brands that you've worked with them maybe you know, I know some of them are some of them are a top secret. So it's okay. Yeah, there's a few that probably I wouldn't be able to speak

about and keep my reputation. Ah, but we're not out here to get you. You're not out here to get me. That happens a lot on the on these on these podcasts. Sometimes not here though, Yeah, I would say right now there, I mean, shoot, I'll sell you a really great brand. I work with Project Blitz. Project Blitz never heard of it, You've never heard of it. You know, if if you've had dre On here, then you know what Project Bliz

is and what Project blitz es. He was the second episode. Okay, cool, so well then we don't even need to delve down that hole. Uh. In the last a few months and my first project was during our bassl Is Horritos. You just did a cool little post about Horritos. But some Mexican Sota brand. You would say, what the heck Doceta and culture and sneakers have to do together? Well, yeah, we made it happen. Yeah we did. I don't really like to like generally work with any specific brand, any

specific industry. I kind of just like to keep the door open and just see kind of what flows my way. I mean, we're here in Hawaii right now as we record this, making some big moves and making some big moves, you know, like we were just here for the Louis Vatton dinner. So it's difficult to say that I work for or with Louis Batton. They have offered me a position a couple of times, but the specific way that I'm with them right now just makes more sense for

me my career path. Yeah, but we're still here. You know, we we got invited to come out here and enjoy dinner. They opened up their new store here in Waikiki, So it was a blessing and I feel very fortunate to come out here and celebrate with them. But that was the new store, the one we went to. Yeah, it was a brand of store, so it was a historic

basically building and foundation. Um. The inside of that store for the last several months, i mean maybe six to eight months, has been gutted and totally turned in because it had two stories before, but just a lot more condensed, not as much space throughout the whole store. They fit a lot more product in the store, which I'm I'm assuming is their goal as any brand. It's like, why do we have all the space and we can't fit our product and now they can so, but it was

it was a lout vatan before too. They just yet so they just redid it. Yeah, they just basically redid the store. So that's what the whole two day period was about. You know, obviously for me and for us, it was a lot more than that. Relationships and being present with you know, the people that you were work with is really important. So absolutely absolutely we had a blast what's the beach today? You know, business and pleasure doesn't don't always make today was one of the few exceptions,

and and and it is. It is one of the few places that you can actually mix business and pleasure and get with it Hawaii. So yeah, I kind of went on a tangent with what I do. But yeah, it just kind of depends where I need to fit and how I can best kind of bring the most value to the team. I love teamwork, I love hard work, and um, I love entrepreneurship. So anything kind of within that fashion art creative realm is something that I'm usually

interested in totally. I think that, especially these days, the term entrepreneur is not what it used to be twenty years ago. And it's kind of hard to just pinpoint one thing that because I have a really hard time answering the question what do you do? I really do And it seems like you in a way don't have

an exact answer. And that's okay, because I feel like that's kind of how things are, know, And it's like you're saying with like a creative direction and you know, helping brands out, like I know, I know you're involvement with blitz obviously and know what you did with Ritos, which is awesome, Like even me, Like, people are like, oh, what do you do? And I don't want to say

influencer because I hate that word. Um, I don't want to say YouTuber or rather say entrepreneur because there's a lot of things I do behind the scenes that you know, I don't put in front of a camera. But yeah, I totally understood. So what do you what are your thoughts on that? Like what do you think, like why do you think that is these days? You think it's because of the Internet. Do you think it's because of the opportunity that the internet brings or do you think

it has nothing to do with the internet. There's just a new way of culture, new way of life. Because I don't know, did you probably when you were in college you weren't like, Okay, I'm definitely gonna do all of these things, you know what I mean? Because at all because most people when they're in college, so like, yeah, I want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a business

or a teacher or whatever. You know, So what what what do you think is that paradigm shift that probably occurred within the last decade or so yeah, So, I mean I grew up wanting to be a major league baseball player. My dad played major league baseball, I played college baseball. I wanted to play major league baseball, you know a little bit of pro ball, and it just I I got burned out. But I think that the competitiveness of that was something that always it was a

part of me. It didn't need need to be baseball for me to be competitive. I think that the shift happened probably when I was twenty three, um, which was ten years ago now, so that would have been two thousand and nine when I met when I met my wife. But it wasn't like I just kind of like came into fashion, you know, like I wasn't wearing Louis Baton and and visam around and stuff like nowadays. But I was still with it, you know, like I knew what

was going on. You know, my mom grew up sewing, so like again, it wasn't like I was some outstanding outspoken fashion critic or des miner or whatever you may have it. But at a younger age, I was more aware of what went in to design, pattern making, sewing, styling, you know, kind of have a foundation in the creative realm of fashion, art, et cetera. Because I mean they all blend together. They always have. Nowadays with technology, it

just seems so much more streamlined together. The paradigm shift probably happened in oh nine as far as when like I'm playing baseball too, Oh wow, I'm gonna really start styling. People that made it further in baseball or other athletes are some artists from the Southeast, you know, because my dad played for the Braves in Atlanta, grew up with a lot of hip hop artists, which is a story in and of itself. But uh, yeah, I just started using the other talents that I had outside of baseball,

like my networking and you know, my style. I always came to and left the park with something for shan. So when I stopped playing baseball, it didn't. It never stop where people are always asking me like, Yo, where'd you get that seavy? Or Yo, where'd you get those shoes?

Or how did you get that so? Um yeah, So would you say, um, maybe your want for something that's like exclusive came from almost the competitiveness from baseball or do you think it's always something just you've you've been into. I think exclusivity was something that I always enjoyed because my dad played pro ball. It wasn't something that I like gloated in. It started a long time ago, man like beanie babies, baseball cards. I mean, I remember literally

selling my baseball car collection. And it's not like I sold like, oh yeah, here's just a normal collection. It was like I had the baseball back cards and the jersey cards and the autograph cars and like the rookie cards, and it just became like having the collection was always something that was important to me. Uh. It's cycled through so many different things, but something that actually always remained constant was the wardrobe. Like and when I say remained constant,

I had cool shoes the whole time. But one year I love paintball, so I had all the coolest paintball guns and all the gear and the new mask and the new goggles, and you know, I might not have had the newest game system, but I still have the

coolest shoes and the coolest fits to me. And then the next year I'd probably be all into cars, so i'd you know, like whatever with the car, and I wouldn't have paintball gear anymore, but I'd still have the shoes and the fits that I needed, you know, for school. So I guess once I kind of became a little bit more successful and had a little bit more opportunity, the wardrobe is continue to grow. And that's what I remained kind of consistent with, was like, I'm going to

continue to grow my image. So where do you think you got an inspiration for like wanting to you know, collect sneakers and have like a cool or did you ever have like an inspiration to collect sneakers or that something more recent? Do you think back then it was just more so like oh, these shoes looked dope with this outfit, rather than like, oh, I'm wearing Jordan's or whatever.

I think my mom always dressed me nice and it made me passion and about making my keeping myself clean, you know, like but wasn't But do you think it was more like when you say clean, was that more like just like white teas and like polos with skinny jeans or just something that it wasn't necessarily any look, it was just basically when I say clean, it was like, I feel like my image has always been important. It wasn't like I'm trying to create a facade of who

I'm not. It's trying to represent myself in the best way, which is like totally different. You can look at it totally different ways, but it's all the same thing. It's like when somebody gets all dressed up and all done up and clean and smells get a nice like somebody like, oh, they're just making a facade, and then other people like, no, they're just like making the best representation of themselves. Like I look at it is. We're all out here, we're

all imperfect people. But the best image you can present yourself with is always what I thought to be one of the most important things. You know. Basically what you're saying is like you're always into certain things and you'd always kind of like need the best of the best and be able to kind of like what you're saying about, like the paintball stuff and like the car stuff in the cards. Where did that? But you said you always looked fresh, um, no matter what you did, So what

do you um? Where do you think? Like the whole sneaker collecting side kind of came in obviously, you know it's an easy bust to podcast, so you know, we gotta talk a little bit about sneaker. Yeah, for sure, we got to what do you think was your first kind of like shoe? You're like, damn, like this is it? You know, I love the sneaker and I have to get every color or every model or whatever. Like what what do you think that that was your first one?

I mean because I know, like just to give you guys context, um, so you know, like whatever I see him, he's either wearing some crazy off whites or some exclusive Air Forces or Supprise or whatever it might be, or literally just a black fair Vans. So fat, what do you think? What do you think was facts on the vans? Is what I mean? Yeah, And what do you think was kind of like what made you get into everything?

Was Vans always your thing and then you kind of branched out in the sneakers or I mean, I think it's a lot of things, you know, like one thing that I don't get here get brought up and maybe it's just me and I'll just call myself out, like it's fun having things other people don't have. Sometimes it's a talking point. It's it's it's not being a jerk, but it's it's it's being like, you know what, man, like, Yo, did you hear about these? Yeah, I heard about him.

I couldn't get him, you know, I got a cool pair, like come check him out, Like, nothing wrong being It's being the guy that has the piece that your friends want to see, you know. Um, nothing wrong with I mean, but style is obviously the epicenter of why I was doing it. Air Force ones, air Max ones, Jordan's wants to A to three. I've grown on me, but air Air Jordan fours when I was younger, we're like that la criminal lacrim. Now when I look at myself, I just looked so boxy on me and I and I

and I don't dismiss that I love that shoe. But yeah, like air Force ones, air Max ones, there's some shoes from back in the day. I mean when I say my first shoe, uh well, for one of the questions that you asked, I would probably like, I mean, one of the first ones that possed into my mind is literally air Force one white, air Force one white low, air Force one white, which is like, wow, that's pretty basic,

but hey, there it is. I'm not gonna I'm not even on the front, Like that was my two of my go toos somewhat accessible to get to still clean. It mattered, it was relevant with like multiple audiences were like you passed with the like Crokey. I mean, I

grew up in the Southeast. I grew up in South Carolina, So it's like passed with the guys in the in the sorority girls to an extent, but you still passed with like the streets a little bit like where you could be relevant on not both there's like a line draw on the sand, but like on every side, there's multiple sides. I would say, like a heater that I had back in the day was like I mean there was an air Max one that was pink and gray

that Clock came out with way back. I mean this was a long time ago and early two thousand's I was one of my big heaters back in the day. There's probably a Jordans four back in the day, like a couple of jordan fours that I had that were fire. I never had like the eminem or anything we can I'm like, I can't. I can't stand out and say that I had like the four like car Heart or Encore or anything crazy like that. But there was a couple of drones that I had maybe the lightning cool gray,

the original cool gray. You know, I'm an old man now though now though, so it's kind of like when I look back, it's like the things that stick to me, or like just your typical air Force ones and your standard air Max ones too, man as we're just two silhouettes that I always vibed with really well totally. I think air Force ones, like ever since they came out, have been a staple and like sneakers, and you know a lot of people are are saying that they came back.

I just, you know, a few minutes ago, actually did say they came back. They never really left in a way. But now I feel like it's becoming more and more of like a normal thing, you know. But it's funny because I used to watch, you know, celebrities talk about their sneakers and they were always like, yeah, I have I have air Force ones. I wear them one time and I throw them away, which is the funniest thing ever.

And it's like the biggest like lex ever because the yeah, we're in a hundred dollar shoe once and tossed away and I have another hundred pairs, but yeah, and they never really left. And it's such a timeless shoe. And I'm willingly to put my money on the on the on this next statement, Like hear me out, guys, their forces are gonna be the next big thing next year, as bees or the thing this year, and like they're gonna kind of slowly start dying out probably with the

next year. They're never gonna die out. Like the expensive ones are still gonna be expensive, but um and really hard to get. But I have a feeling that air forces are just gonna skyrocket next year. Everyone's gonna be going crazy for force. Yeah, I agree. Well, so it's just you know, it's just a shoe that's it's like it's back like it never left, you know what I mean. But um, in a way, it's really gonna explode next year.

In my opinion, at least, I could be wrong. I've I've actually been saying that to some mutual friends of ours. I feel like Jordans ones been going crazy. I don't think they'll ever die off necessarily, but I feel like one the first, second, and third place shoe silhouette contenders always switched up every now and then, and you know you've got the Jordan once and now you got the s B craze going for a little bit, for sure.

The Air Force one's gonna kick in. I'm curious to see what what silhouette it goes US two after that. But I would agree with you. I would think that Air Forces is something that is going to come very very hard culturally as far as cultural significance in the next year. Yeah. No, absolutely, I think if we if we really broke it down, though, I think from two thousand fifteen two seventeen, it was all Easy. Everything was Easy Easy three. I mean there was some sneakers in there.

There was some sneakers in there, but like, but you didn't hear about any of the sneakers. You didn't hear about really anything anything Nike much. I mean Easy controlled the media like and and I And I'm not saying that like literal, I'm just saying it, like you didn't really hear much outside of the Easy releases, and you didn't hear because they're outside of the market, being totally just crazy uneasies, That's what I'm saying. I think two

and seventeen was really just like Kanye, that's it. Like I I the only thing I wore was Adidas during those three years. I never had worn Adidas previous I honestly don't think I've ever owned a pair of Adidas sneakers previous to that. I was always a die hard Kanye fan, and you know, still I am, by the way, but now it's like all Travis Scott and you know,

Jordan's like that's pretty much it. You know, like now people are seeing easy releases every now and then, they're just so kind of selling out, but they're not as crazy as they used to be. I think two dozen fIF two thousand seven teens with for sure yeasies, maybe it went from three fifty v ones to seven fifties to uh, seven hundreds and then I would say no, I wouldn't even say seven hundred. I'd say V twos. We're kind of like to take over. But now I

feel like people are kind of getting over him. So what do you think was like two thousand eighteen and two nineteen, like what was the shoe of the year this year? A lot of people were saying, gosh, I mean the reinsurgence that that Jordan's Nike Brain came. I mean there were so many ones that came out the Union, Jordan's I mean the off whites. We can't forget those. You know, there's a lot of opinions about it, but a lot of people were saying the last year, the

sneaker of the year was the Union Jordan one. Everyone was rooting for that guy. And I mean, honestly, for me, I would say it's one of the best Jordan's. I mean, I personally wear the blue red white combo to fum blue. Yes, you would, You would know the official name better than I do, but I know that it's a fly looking Jordan one. Um. Obviously the red the red toe are the black toe with the red top and the in the gray swede on. It is something else that's just remarkable.

But it's it's they're they're they're both probably top two Jordan's of the year for sure, But I don't know if it's it's just tough to say what's the best shoe of the year, you know, Yeah, it's what was your favorite of this year or last year? Two thousand nineteen. Oh man, you know, there's still a few shoes that are about to come out in twenty nineteen contend with the dunks. I don't know if they're really contenders. To be quite honest, like and remind me of what's all

you know? Okay, So, so the skis Pschis came out this year, the waff Runners and the Blazers. Blazers and waff Runners super cool shout out of the Sky and Nike awesome collaboration. I'm a bigger fan of the waff Runners. I think it's a great shoe. Probably not the best one of the year. Travis Scott's Jordan One. I would say that Jordan one Low might be a contender. I know that's a very unpopular opinion. It is. I like the Low more than the High and I almost got

crucified on my story. But and that's so, and that's okay. I think, you know, having an opinion that just differs is like what dialogue is all about. It's great. As much as everyone loves the Jordan One, I I'm not the really the biggest fan of it. Wow, that's like, I know, dunt, dunt. Yeah, I mean I'm not like what I wear it? Yeah, I do, I like it? Yes? Is it with my favorite? No? It really is not. I'd rather wear the Jordan one though. Um well, that's

the thing. Like Jordan one, I never was a fan, and at a lot of people were in from the high piece. But I think what Travis did with the Jordan one Low was very good because I feel like beautiful every not not even like the like the color, and like his like backwards spurge. Like the actual shape of the shoe is entirely different than like a shattered backboard blow or like a bread Low or like a Royal Low, because it was just sleeker, you know, it

didn't have that crazy looking heel in the back. It was made to be a shoe that you wear on the street, not a shoe you play basketball, which I really liked, and that's why I really loved the Eric costen um as b Jordan one lows, like the unc color way, and then I like the new ones that he's actually releasing, which are really really dope. Like that shape is sick. Like if all Jordan one lows came in that shape, I'd be We're enjoying one lows all day.

But like the rest of them with that if they just have a really large heel and like you know, it's for like ankle support or like support, which makes sense because it's for basketball. But like I just think that Travis was really like, you know what, I want to give this kind of an s B vibe, and I kind of I wanted to be like a skate slash streetwear sneaker, Like you know what I mean, I

can I can see that, Yeah for sure. So that's why I started liking him or not, because I mean genuinely, like I thought Eric Costin's Jordan One Low was that for I will say, shout out, shout out to Eric because that that's that's a fire shoe. It is. There's a lot of other shoes. In fact, while we're on the subject, I'm not gonna like probably name all of them, but we can't forget like the fragment clot air Force one that came out. I'm an air Force one guy.

Like we've talked about fire. What's another? Oh yeah, this plant flea market. They came out with some air Force ones Fire. I like it. So that that's cool. She's killing it. The Blazers that she came out out with that are like mixed match. Those are pretty cool in my opinion about a lot of people might not say that's the top tier running shoe for the year, but I think it's a great idea and it was really cool to me. Um, you know, we're probably missing like

ten shoes, but it was funny. That's that's that's that's the way. There wasn't like one that you were like damn, like either you got it and you immediately put on your foot or like you weren't able to get and you're like, ship, I really need this. Mm hmm. You know that that because last year, if there's usually a shoe I want, I'm gonna try it, I'm gonna get it. Well yeah, but I don't want to say like I get every shoe I want. I'm not that guy. But

no matter what, like I'll pay resil, I don't care. Um. Last year, for me, that shoe was the Hollow's Eve Blazer. That was my favorite true of last year. Um, I would say it's either at the top three best shoes of last year. I paid Resail for it. I didn't care. I like the black one better. I have the Hollows Eve too, but the black blazer to me is like, that's the that's a fire shoe. I wore that a lot.

I don't know. I was a bigger fan of the Hollows Eve Like that was the first shoe I paid resoil for last year, overnight d to my house and wore them the next day. That's how much I love those shoes. The Blacks Split Swoosh air Force one CDG that was from last year, I believe, right, I think so, Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I got I got two or three pairs of those just to make sure that I had them. So like another amazing slept on. I feel like those are gonna be something that goes up next year.

But you're gonna hear me go back to the silhouettes of the air Max one, the air Force one, the air Drawer and one. I I really think that it's gonna be hard to kind of pick a shoe for this year. But you know, um that that'll be a discussion for probably a different podcast with the May maybe I'll have, Yeah, I think it to be. I think I'll have some some guests on that will have a

pretty heated debate, so it would be interesting. I mean, I feel like I can give a heated debate, but you know, I probably need a little bit more prep. I'm gonna have to go back home and look through my closet of stuff that I'm just like sitting on and be like, oh wow, I remember this guy. We

live in a busy world. You know, shoes are definitely something that I'm passionate about, but there's so much else going on in my life right now that actually I would be lying if I said that shoes they've taken a back burner. That's scary to say they'll never be irrelevant to me. But like again, there's just a lot of other things that are more important right now. So

I'm always gonna have a fresh paretics. But uh, me being the best critic of every single shoe that's coming out on a current basis, it's just probably probably not. I was just I'm just curious to pick your brain on that one. But yeah, anyway, guys, um, we're a little bit sure for time. Um, I'm I apologize if

the podcast sounds a little bit different. Um, you know, I'm not back in the studio in l A. And I'm in Hawaii trying to enjoy my time out here with Severino truly and a couple other friends that we have out here. So, um, Severino, this is uh your time right now. Go ahead, like leave us with something, you know, tell us where we can follow you and see more of a Saverino truly, yeah, kind of you know, tell tell us something like a little a word of wisdom,

so you know, man, man, I'll try. Um okay, So well, first off, I appreciate you, Thank you for coming off. Guys. Yeah, you know, I think that we all have a lot of talents and and and ambitions in life, and I've chosen to chase several different ones of mine and I've kind of landed where I'm at right now with this kind of creative realm that I've kind of revolve inside of the reason I'm saying that is because I've always been really ambitious about doing what my my heart felt.

So if I had to leave you with any words of wisdom, it would just be to really be ambitious and and disciplined about how to get where you want to get. Um. For me, it was just being determined and making sure I was accountable to the plan that I created for myself. Other than that, man, if there's anything to check out, it's just we have a big schedule coming up for you know, there's a lot of travel. Fashion Week, Harris Milan, I'm going to Tokyo. I'll be

in Hong Kong. There's a lot going on art fashion stuff. But yeah, I would say just just if if you want to follow some crazy stuff out side of this guy and everybody else he has on you can check me out. My name is, like, like he said, Severino Alvarez or Severin No Truly. You'll be able to probably find me on is it at Severino Truly? On Instagram? Yeah? Who wants to go check out some Yeah? Some fit picks? Yeah,

fit picks. I'm not gonna lie though. If if there's an old man putting out fit picks on another level, it's it's your voice, Severino No, but hey, for real. I appreciate you guys my Heart Radio. Thanks guys for having me on. Look forward to uh hearing more great things about the podcast. Man, Well, appreciate you for coming on. Man, thanks for having me in Hawaii, and I'm gonna get you guys next time. Peace